his body shaking with anger.
“You’re fucking welcome,” I say with a smile, then I march away with my guys howling with laughter behind me.
Dishes fall and smash on the floor.
I glance over my shoulder to see Tyler lunging over the servery toward me, but he’s held back by Luke and a pair of guards. I walk over to an empty seat, take a huge bite of my apple, and watch the scene unfold like I’m at the movies.
Axel drops onto the chair at my left, Scott takes my right and Memphis sits across from me, all their eyes pinned on Tyler.
“Should’ve known they’d bring a sick fuck like him to this place,” Axel mutters.
“Has anyone seen Coen?” I ask, a little part of me wanting him to be here. I’ll have a chance to kill him once and for all if there are truly no exceptions made in the new Blood Trials. I still need to avenge Abbie and her brother Kenneth. Killing the pack alpha is the least I can do for them.
“Not yet.” Memphis turns to face me, his jaw clenched. “But either way, kid, you need someone around you at all times from here on out.” He looks between the Mune brothers. “We protect her at all costs.”
“I don’t need protection,” I say, watching the guards pin Tyler to the floor and taser him. “Not at least from scum like him.”
If the guys disagree with me, they don’t quite voice it.
“Be that as it may,” Scott adds, breaking the silence that stretches between us, “Memphis is right. We will all stay together, especially during the Trials. At least I’ll be able to put my healing abilities to some good use there.”
I blink at Memphis, watching him turn a little green around the gills. He lost his fiance, Eliot, in a duo Blood Trial and I know it still affects both him and Axel.
“You’re entering?” I ask, my voice just above a whisper.
He nods. “Got no choice, kid.”
I set my apple down, suddenly losing my appetite. I’ve been so caught up in things that I never stopped to think about how my guys feel. I reach for Memphis and Axel’s hands, smiling at Scott, and swallow the lump of emotion that swells into my throat.
“No matter what, we’re going to get through this,” I tell him.
Scott wraps a hand around my waist and presses a kiss to my temple. “Together,” he says.
I grin at him. “Damn straight.”
Axel rubs the back of my hand while Memphis gives my other one a light squeeze.
Luke appears before the guards who helped restrain Tyler march to our table.
“I’ll handle this,” Luke growls at them, then grabs me off my chair. The guys rise to their feet, pissed by the way he’s handling me like a ragdoll, but I know from his expression alone that he’s putting on a front for the guards. He’s just doing his job, which protects both of us. I trust him.
I flash my guys a wink as Luke escorts me from the mess hall. He doesn’t speak the entire way to what I can only assume is the staff quarters. He swipes his pass on a white door at the end and waits for me to enter first.
The layout of the apartment reminds me a little of the one Gold had. But everything inside here has been taken straight from my home. When my mum said she got me a room here, I never imagined she’d quite literally taken everything from my childhood bedroom.
I sweep my gaze over the rustic furnishings, the fluffy blankets draped over my tartan bedding, the faux fur rugs on the floor. Even my white vanity that has pictures of my family on it.
The room should make me feel comforted in this time of darkness, but it doesn’t. I feel weird in here, like stepping into a ghost town. This is all just a reminder of what my life used to be like—the lie I was living under my mother’s roof.
Luke stands in front of me and gives me a quick once over. “Are you all right?”
I smile at his concern. “You were just stepping in before the other guards did.”
His lips spread into a grim line and a crease forms between his brows.
“Plus,” I add before he can protest, “I don’t mind a bit of roughness every now and then.”
His features soften, and he runs a knuckle down my cheek. “I just don’t wanna hurt you even if it is to protect you.”
I